Martin Eberhard

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Eberhard (2006)

Martin Eberhard (born May 15, 1960 in Berkeley , California ) is an American electrical engineer , company founder and was CEO of Tesla Motors , a company that manufactures electric cars in San Carlos , until August 13, 2007 .

Education and personal life

Eberhard earned a bachelor's degree in computer development from the University of Illinois, followed by a master's degree in electrical engineering.

He lives in both Northern and Southern California with old college sweetheart Carolyn and their two children. His hobbies were flying with a hang-glider and paragliding until his insurance company prohibited him from doing so.

Network Computing Devices, Inc. and NuvoMedia

Together with others, he first founded Network Computing Devices, where he acted as chief developer of the computer networks division and developed broadband computer terminals for Wyse Technology .

After their sale, he founded NuvoMedia with Marc Tarpenning , an e-book developer , which he sold to Gemstar-TV Guide International for $ 187 million .

Tesla Motors

He then founded Tesla Motors Incorporated with Marc Tarpenning in 2003, the aim of which is to develop competitive, attractive electric cars . Financiers included billionaire PayPal founder Elon Musk , Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page , eBay founder Jeff Skoll, and some of the biggest venture financiers: VantagePoint , Draper Fisher Jurvetson , JP Morgan . The company name was inspired by the great electrical engineering pioneer Nikola Tesla .

After Eberhard was CEO in the company's early years, he was replaced on August 8, 2007 by Michael Marks, the former CEO of Flextronic . Eberhard was not involved in this decision. Eberhard became President of Technology and was therefore still responsible for development. In December 2007 it was announced that Eberhard was no longer an employee of Tesla Motors, but only a shareholder. According to Eberhard, after joining as an investor, Musk is said to have worked on gaining complete control over Tesla Motors and ultimately pushed him out of the company at the end of 2007. Musk also constructed the legend that he [Musk] was the founder and visionary of Tesla Motors. In June 2009, Eberhard filed a lawsuit against Musk with the Superior Court of California ( San Mateo County ) in which he accused Musk of defamation, character assassination, breach of contract, breach of duty of care and non-payment of shares and salaries. Three months later, Eberhard's indictment was dropped for no reason.

Eberhard is concerned about America's dependence on oil imports from the Middle East and the promotion of the greenhouse effect from internal combustion engines in cars. He says he loves cars. A typical quote from him is: “Up until now, electric cars have been made by people who don't like cars. They want the customer to change their nature and that is a mistake. We have to offer him a car that he wants. "

The first vehicle presented by Tesla Motors in 2007 after three years of development was the Tesla Roadster , a roadster optically designed and produced by Lotus with a 252 hp electric motor and an acceleration from 0 to 100 km / h in 4 seconds. This was followed by the Tesla Model S sedan .

Tesla Motors was the first automobile manufacturer in Silicon Valley.

SF Motors

In 2016, Eberhard founded the start-up company InEVit, which develops battery modules and drive trains for electric cars. In mid-October 2017, InEVit was completely taken over by the company SF Motors. As part of the takeover, Eberhard became chief developer and deputy chairman of the board of SF Motors. He advised SF Motors on strategic issues even before the InEVit takeover. SF Motors is a subsidiary of the Chinese company Chongqing Sokon Industry Group. In November 2017, SF Motors took over the former production facility in Indiana in which the General Motors brand Hummer was produced for USD 110 million. SF Motors wants to convert production to electric cars with investments of 30 million.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ "There was no discussion, I didn't get to hear what they said. I didn't get to defend myself. I felt totally stranded. "(D. Bear, 2014)
  2. ↑ Tesla motor founder ousted. In: http://thegreenwombat.com/2007/12/04/tesla-motors-founder-ousted . December 4, 2007, accessed November 25, 2017 .
  3. ↑ Peter-Michael Ziegler: Tesla Motors threatens a mud battle in court. In: heise.de. June 11, 2009. Retrieved November 25, 2017 .
  4. ↑ bizjournals.com Dropping the charges against Elon Musk. Retrieved July 24, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Wilfried Eckl-Dorna: Martin Eberhard and SF Motors: The Tesla brain. In: Spiegel Online . November 25, 2017. Retrieved November 25, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Eberhard, Martin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American electrical engineer and entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH May 15, 1960
PLACE OF BIRTH Berkeley , California